News innovators aren’t innovative enough
The vanguards of old media and new media met in Portland a few weeks ago to discuss the future of local journalism. The conference, called “We Make the Media,” generated some heat because of cultural divisions among attendees. The conference organizers were looking for ways to save the best of traditional journalism, and the social-media masters were eager to define journalism in new ways.
After some reflection, I’ve decided to go public with my initial thought: Neither side showed enough imagination.
It’s no secret that newspapers and TV news programs have shown too little innovation. They do essentially the same things today that they did 20 years ago, when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, which ultimately undermined the traditional news business. The primary difference is that newspapers and TV stations now also post much of their content on the Web.
But what about the new-media innovators? More blogs? (Invented 15 years ago.) Citizen journalism? (The term dates back to at least 2003.) Nonprofit journalism? (The St. Petersburg Times has been nonprofit since 1975.) Even Twitter hashtags! (First championed by Chris Messina — the Twitterer, not the actor — in 2007.)
This is innovation? No, these are old ideas in a world that moves in real time.
I would argue that today’s innovators aren’t thinking boldly enough. Where is the news entrepreneur who wants to employ dazzling data visualization to explain complex local issues? Who will be the first to use a 360-degree, all-directional video camera from Portland’s Immersive Media to shoot news video? What news organization will figure out how to tap the collective knowledge of the 170,000 Portland-area residents with advanced college degrees or the 265,000 Portlanders born in foreign countries? Who will find a way to turn readers into investigative assignment editors, with a staff of investigative reporters at their disposal?
I would also argue that today’s newspapers have given up too easily on bold thinking. There is much life left in newsprint itself for those who innovate. Two 20-something German entrepreneurs just launched Niiu, a home-delivered print newspaper that readers custom-design by choosing the newspapers and pages or sections they find interesting. Many newspapers could at least allow subscribers to order the paper on specific days, rather than forcing them into an all-or-nothing choice. Several projects are under way to reproduce long-form investigative or explanatory series as digital books.
And there’s nothing wrong with going out on a limb: Creating video games and board games to explain story lines. Using wikis to store background information on running stories — and enabling readers to edit and contribute. Using puppets to anchor a newscast. Writing stories in comic-book form. (One of my biggest successes as a health writer came when my colleague and I collaborated with a staff artist to create a graphic short story on the concept of capitation in managed care.) One of my craziest dreams: Hire an artist to create a three-dimensional, walk-through representation of the city budget, to be displayed in downtown Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square.
The bottom line is that news consumers want useful, trustworthy information. Journalists and news organizations must find new ways to rise above the growing noise of the Internet, or those consumers will likely never hear their message. How? Use your imagination.
Keep in mind too that a lot of great ideas probably die on the vine because it’s tough for innovative thinking to trickle up the food chain, and newspapers are typically run by a stodgy bunch. Of course, some ideas do get a hearing with the grand poobahs only to get shot down because they’re too “bleeding edge.” News execs are the first to ask, “Is anyone else in the industry doing this?” And then, “Are they making money, and how much?” They are so focused on the short-term bottom line, especially these days, that they’re afraid to do anything too bold lest it kill the golden calf. What gets me is that they like to say “content is king,” but what they really mean is “the content our staff produces is king” and anything else, ie, UGC, is gunk. It seems to me at times that our arrogance in the media is stifling the free exchange of ideas we allegedly champion. When it comes to the message we’re control freaks. Wow. I just doused the flames of optimism there. Probably now an industry watch list. Time to slap on my filter.
p.s. I too love the city budget idea. It could be like that movie scene (escapes me now) where the lead character (wanna say Michael Douglas) slaps on some virtual gloves and goggles and virtually enters the company’s file system a la Tron to find some files critical to his case.
Isn’t the average age of the CNN viewer something like 65? THE AVERAGE. Maybe news is for old people? In which case, old ideas make sense…
did we innovate anything on the day? not much. however, for a lot of us, these were new issues, or at least issues with new dimensions. what we have done is begin a conversation, and tomorrow we’ll finally have a chance to get together and see what steps we want to take next. if we end up with a number of ways to experiment our way into the future, i think that will be innovative enough. not sure there’s anything brilliantly innovativey sitting around waiting to be found anyway. as you imply, the old standard values still apply. combining those with modern tools & creativity, and the right group of people, then innovation will emerge.
Wow — I love the walk-through budget idea.
When I grow up, I’m going to be a journalist-sculptor who travels the country persuading municipalities to pay me to build unbiased three-dimensional renderings of the budget in their city hall courtyards.
Re: “One of my craziest dreams: Hire an artist to create a three-dimensional, walk-through representation of the city budget, to be displayed in downtown Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square.”
I love this idea. Maybe based around a treemap graph, so every area of funding got a proportional amount of space on the bricks? Then people could see what areas get enough money a group of people can stand on them, vs. ones where there’s no elbow room.